The author of the book, Dmitry Terekhov, is a famous artist, a student of the outstanding masters of Russian Art Nouveau Vladimir Egorov and Robert Falk, the nephew of the artist Anna Troyanovskaya, who is closely acquainted with Pyotr Konchalovsky, Fyodor Chaliapin, Konstantin Stanislavsky and many other artists. Thanks to Anna Ivanovna Troyanovskaya, in 1947 the author made a fateful acquaintance with a young, promising pianist, student of Heinrich Neuhaus, Svyatoslav Richter. The friendship between Richter and Terekhov lasted about fifty years, until the death of the great pianist. A few years later, Dmitry Fedorovich wrote his memoir-sketches about him, which skillfully combined the author’s personal memories with his conversations with Svyatoslav Richter’s wife, singer Nina Dorliak, and her student Galina Pisarenko. This book is primarily a tribute to many years of friendship and admiration for a true genius. It is created on the basis of memories, personal impressions and reflections, as well as eyewitness accounts of many of the events described here.